GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 317466
Confusing search folders UI due to nested search folders
Last modified: 2021-05-19 12:12:04 UTC
Evolution allows you to create search folders inside other search folders. I want to question the usefulness of this feature since it makes the UI unnecessarily complicated and I don't know of a situation where this makes sense. The problems with the current design is that richt-clicking on "Search Folders" to create a new search folder also offers you the IMAP accounts folder lists. If you choose a location inside an IMAP folder list it will create a regular folder, not a search folder (doh!). Very confusing. Even by removing the IMAP accounts folder lists the question remains: what are the semantics of a search folder inside a search folder and who needs this? I vote for removing that possibility alltogether. Attached patch fixes this.
Created attachment 52792 [details] [review] Proposed patch
is the modified patch coming soon?? The patch should be modified to have the following: 1. Right click on a physical folder should give only the option of creating a New physical folder only. 2. Right clicking on a Search folder should give only the option of creating a New Search folder only.(?) Cheers
No. Please, no! The feature of nested vFolders is a highly useful feature. Please do *not* remove it. It really makes sense in a lot of cases to structure our vFolders just as well as it makes sense to structure your regular mail folders. I do use structured and nested vFolders all the time. All sub- and parent-folders are fully functional vFolders. ou even can base vFolders on other vFolders using "special folders" as source. This even implies it's usefulness. Regarding the mix of vFolders and real folders: Yes, this is a bug. :-)
Thanks Karsten :). I could do with some support. So the patch should just do: 1. Right click on a physical folder should give only the option of creating a New physical folder only. 2. Right clicking on a Search folder should give only the option of creating a New Search folder only.
Created attachment 58202 [details] [review] Please Review On right-clicking search folder the appropriate popup menu is shown
Hmm looks fine for me. May be you can have a flag like EM_POPUP_VEE_FOLDER of sort and then use it here. This will work fine.. but not a nice one. We may have 10 other things specific to VFolders later, and we can use that flag directly. Doing this way, we have to write Ifs and others things and we wont really use the functionality the plugins provide.
Well, that patch fixes some context-menu stuff only, right? I believe, the more important issue and what CG really is about is something else, though. When creating a Search Folder (or Folder) you get a tree view where to add that folder. This tree shows the *entire* mail tree, rather than the valid (sub) trees only. To be more precise: When creating a vFolder, the "Search Folder" tree must be shown only. When creating a real folder, that "Search Folder" tree must not be shown. Or is it really intended behavior to create physical folders and vFolders intermixed?
CG: Comments? Did I describe that correctly? (Sorry for the abbreviation of your name, but we really do have a rather uncommon name clash here. ;-)
I opened two bugs wrt search folders: #311063 which I later closed as invalid because I was told that this was by design (see thread on evo-hackers). 311063 dealt with the fact that you get the folder creation dialog for real folders when clicking "New vFolder". This bug here is only about the nested search folders. IMHO this is not useful and rather confusing because the semantics are not clear to the user.
+ { E_POPUP_ITEM, "20.emc.00", N_("_New Folder..."), emft_popup_new_folder, NULL, "stock_new-dir", 0, EM_POPUP_FOLDER_INFERIORS }, + { E_POPUP_ITEM, "20.emc.00", N_("_New Search Folder..."), emft_popup_new_folder, NULL, "stock_new-dir", 0, EM_POPUP_FOLDER_INFERIORS } Hmm nice.. this comments help me focus a more closer look. thanks CG and KB ;-) more abbreviations... So ranjan, ive expected to open a vfolder editor instead of just the normal folder creat.. so not fine...
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